The South Windsor High School robotics team: Bobcat Robotics Team #177, won the Granite State District Event in Nashua, NH this past Saturday. The champion alliance was composed of the South Windsor High School Team 177 "Bobcat Robotics", the Amherst, NH Team 138 "Entropy", and the Litchfield, NH Team 3323 "Potential Energy".

The FIRST game for 2014, Aerial Assist, was released on Jan. 5. From that point, teams had six weeks to build the robot they would compete with. This game requires teams to score 2 foot diameter, 2.7 lb. balls in goals, with extra points awarded to teams able to work together to move the ball across the playing field. In addition to being part of the winning alliance at the 39 team event, the Bobcats also won an entrepreneurship award for their business plan.

Aside from building a competition-ready robot, these students must work within budget and time constraints and deal with many other complexities that simulate challenges of the engineering world. Bobcat Robotics could not have completed this year's challenge without the support of their primary sponsors, ClearEdge Power, United Technologies, Ensign Bickford Aerospace & Defense, and Gain Talent. The Bobcats will be in action again at the Hartford District event at Hartford Public High School on March 29th and 30th. The event is open to the public. For more information about the team, visit http://www.bobcatrobotics.org. To follow the team's progress throughout the season, check them out on twitter at @BobcatRobotics or Facebook - Bobcat Robotics.